Ely woman dines with Clinton in Washington

Etto, at the corner of 14th Street and Q in Washington, D.C., is known for its Neapolitan pies baked in a wood-burning oven.

But Kay Hale of Ely wasn't there Monday for the pizza.

Instead, she was there for lunch with Hillary Clinton.

Hale, long active in the Linn County Democratic Party, won a contest sponsored by the Clinton presidential campaign to join the candidate for lunch at the Washington cafe.

It was Hale and her guest - her cousin Kathy Bass of Cedar Rapids, and four other Clinton supporters, members of the campaign staff and the Secret Service. More than 650,000 people entered the contest for the chance to lunch with Clinton. Although the campaign called the contest its biggest single online fundraiser, Hale said she hasn't donated to the campaign.

'It was a big deal for us,” Hale, a school bus driver for 20 years, said about lunch with the former first lady and - 'Let's hope,” she said - the next president.

They dined on salad and pizza and talked about politics and the campaign.

'We all got to ask a question, and the campaign interviewed us,” Hale said before boarding a flight back to Cedar Rapids on Monday afternoon.

Hale has twin grandsons who are in the Iowa Army National Guard. One is a helicopter mechanic who may be deployed to Afghanistan, 'so my question was about that and (Clinton) assured me that she doesn't want troops on the ground in Syria.”

Bass asked about foster care, Hale said, 'because her son just got a foster daughter that he wants to adopt.”

Other topics included gun violence, terrorism and health care.

Lunch lasted about an hour and was 'very relaxed,” Hale said. 'I've met her before, but I've never gotten to spend this much time with her.”

'It was all very casual. She answered all of our questions,” she added.

Hale, who was a Chris Dodd supporter in 2008 when Clinton sought the Democratic nomination, didn't show up empty-handed.

'I handed my ‘commit to caucus' card to her,” she said, 'and I watched her put it in her pocket.”

Hale also will be a temporary precinct chairwoman when Democrats caucus Feb. 1.